Walking on Wednesdays - Walking Up To A Snake

the Old Indian

Once upon a time, 

a woman was picking up firewood. 

She came upon a poisonous snake 

frozen in the snow. 

She took the snake home 

and nursed it back to health. 

One day the snake bit her on the cheek. 

As she lay dying, 

she asked the snake, 

"Why have you done this to me?" 

And the snake answered, 

"Look, bitch, 

you knew I was a snake."

~Old Indian from Natural Born Killers

One thing we were afraid of when we moved here 

to North Carolina was the snakes.

There are poisonous snakes here,

like Copperheads!

Copperhead
photo courtesy of The Biology Department at Davidson

And lo and behold, within the first few weeks we were here, this big old black snake slithered on the patio.

We remembered that quote from Natural Born Killers...

Not knowing what is was, 

hubby 'took care of it' 

with a shovel. 

Black Rat Snake
photo courtesy of The Biology Department at Davidson

Afterwards, we looked it up and found,

 it was not a poisonous snake after all.

It was a Black Rat Snake.

One that helped by 

eating rats, mice, and also birds and bird eggs.

We were sorry to have killed that one.

But as we discovered this morning, 

he was not the only one.

Our very own Black Rat Snake, on my clothesline.

I walked right up on this one.

He was in the tree right next to the clothesline.

They move pretty slow, 

and this one seemed to be wanting shelter 

from the strong winds that have been blowing.

He slithered down the tree, 

and right into that pipe that is our clothesline.

is this too close ??

We will let this one stay around.

But never get so close

as to let it bite us

on the cheek.